When the flash of light happened, they had to close their eyes due to the brightness. When they opened their eyes again, they found that they were outdoors on a stadium-sized race track.

The first thing Jack did was look at himself. He was still wearing the ragged shirt and pants except no more chains were binding him. He tried accessing his inventory and took things out. He could not. He also still couldn’t use any of his skills or spells.

Master did the same. Except he tried casting his spells first, intending to cast an offensive spell on Jack. He was disheartened to find that he was unable to do so.

Jack looked around. The place looked like an ordinary race track with spectator seats at one side. No one was in those seats. As for the other side, everything was void.

‘Where are the other three teams?’ Jack wondered. There were only ten of them here. The same people as when they were locked in the dungeon.

Another flash of light and an elven woman of celestial beauty appeared before them. She was smiling and had a friendly expression. Yet, Jack felt her eyes look somewhat hollow.

“Hi, everyone. Thank you for participating in our games,” The woman greeted. “I’m your host, Aglea. I will oversee this game and give you the instruction on each round.”

“Aglea? You are one of the divine priestesses of this faction!” Jack exclaimed. “I’ve come to meet you. I’m here as a representative of Hope. We need to speak. I’ve come to warn–”

Aglea stared at Jack with her smiling face. She lifted her hand and pointed at Jack. Jack’s lips suddenly glued together. He was unable to speak.

“Mmhh…” Jack tried exerting full force to open his mouth, but they were like being held by a clamp.

‘Hm… I’ve to learn that trick,’ Master thought to himself.

“I’m sorry, participant. You are not allowed to speak while I’m explaining,” Aglea said. “This is a soft warning. The next one to interrupt me will receive a more severe punishment. There will be a questions and answers session, so please stay quiet until then. Now, back to my explanation. The game will consist of several matches before they culminate in an end match. This will be the first match, the track running match!”

The sounds of gongs and cheers were heard. Everyone looked around, wondering where those sounds and cheers came from.

“You will start from this starting line and run one round. When you get back to this line, you will complete this match,” Aglea said. “Simple, right? Now, are there any questions before we begin having fun?”

“So, all we need to do is just run this track?” Stefan asked.

“Uh-huh,” Aglea nodded.

“What’s our prize for winning? Do we get our freedom?” Naomi asked.

“No. This match is not about who wins the first place. It is about who has the last place,” Aglea answered.

“What do you mean?” Richard asked.

“The participant who has the last place will be nominated as a sacrifice.”

“Sa… Sacrifice…? What do you mean by that?” Kramer asked.

“You will find out once this match ends,” Aglea said. “Any other question?”

“Mmm…! Mmhhh…!!” Jack tried to open his mouth, but his lips were still locked. He had some questions of his own.

Aglea acted like she didn’t see Jack. She continued looking around for the others to ask their questions.

“Where are the other teams? Your colleague mentioned there are four teams,” Master asked. This was one of the questions Jack wanted to ask.

“You will meet the other teams at the end match, considering that you survive until then,” Aglea answered. “Every match before the end match will serve to choose a sacrifice. When you get to the end match, the more participants you still have in your team, the better your chance is against the other teams.”

“Wait! If every match chooses a sacrifice, won’t the end match have a fixed reduction in the number of participants?” Richard asked.

“Will we be freed if we win the end match?” Naomi asked.

“Questioning session is over. Everyone, please take your positions,” Aglea uttered without answering those questions. She moved to the side of the track where the starting line was.

The others looked at each other in confusion. Aglea stared back at them with a beckoning motion. She was still smiling. Her expression never changed since she first appeared. Rather than a face, it was more like a mask.

Master went and took a position before the starting line.

Jack came beside him. “Mmm… Mmm…”

He was still unable to speak. He pointed at his lips in protest while looking at Aglea. Aglea again acted like she didn’t see him.

The others came to the starting line one by one.

“Ready?” Aglea asked when everyone was in position.

Everyone took a pose. Some bent down and imitated the starting pose of professional athletes before they run. Some simply readied themselves in a standing position, like common people who were about to run.

Jack jumped a few times and ran in place.

𝓃𝗈𝓋𝚎𝑳𝐧𝓔xt.𝔠𝐎𝚖

‘All my skills are locked, but my attributes still work normally,’ Jack thought. In this case. He and Master who had multi-classes should have the fastest running speed.

“Get set… GO…!!” Aglea shouted.

At the same time that she said, Go, the sound of a gunshot was heard. No one had the time to wonder where that sound came from. Everyone dashed off running. No one wanted to be the last. No one questioned what it meant for being a sacrifice.

As expected, Jack and Master led the race by a huge margin. Despite Master having more classes than Jack, Jack was still faster. All his classes gave a huge boost to dexterity, after all.

Jack half expected this match to be something more than a simple track running. He kept expecting monsters or some obstacles to appear on the track as he ran, but no such thing happened.

Jack was the first to arrive back where they started without any suspense.

He lifted his hand in victory and then made a motion to Aglea, who was still standing there, by pointing at his mouth. He figured since he was the first, he had the right for a prize to be allowed to speak. Yet, Aglea continued to ignore him.

Jack started to worry. Would he be denied speaking throughout this entire game?

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